The Passing of Great Armies
Further Aspects of Mechanization. By Brigadier-General H. Rowan-Robinson. (Cloves. fis.)
" It is the country that has the courage to scrap its army most completely which may come nearest to winning in the next great war."
Tins prophecy of Mr. H. G. Wells, standing at the head of one of General Rowan-Robinson's most thoughtful chapters, should give us pause. Disarmament is being discussed in its every aspect to-day : not the least important view is that of the practical soldier (we are not quoting the author, but expressing a composite opinion based on no little reading and discussion) which is in effect that " limitation of armies and navies is nonsense from the fighting standpoint : you might as well agree to discard the use of cross-bows and chain mail to-morrow's battles will be between tanks and aeroplanes, with
smoke-screens and poison-gas as allies." We do not yet understand a tithe of the implications of
modern civilization in social, political, and economic spheres ; it is not surprising, therefore, that the War Offices of the world and the public opinion that supports them have not yet been able to decide what kind of armament will best con- tribute towards self-defence. (No nation to-day would admit aggressive intentions.) But General Rowan-Robinson, in his brilliant essays, provides us with much food for thought. He quotes General von Seckt, who asks what success was achieved by the titanic mobilization of armies in the last War?
" When recourse must be made to arms, is it necessary every time for whole peoples to hurl themselves at each other's throats 7 Perhaps the principle of the nation in arms is to-day out of date : the fureur du nombre a thing of the past. The mass becomes immobile : it cannot manoeuvre, therefore it cannot conquer. it can only stifle. The more we increase the masses of our fighting men the more certain becoines the triumph of the machine. The triumph of the machine is not, however, over man, but over mass- humanity. The machine canoaly come to life in the hand of man."
So it may come to pass that the present discussion as to the citizen armies of the Latin nations may solve itself in a curious and unexpected way. They will become useless for war, how- ever valuable they may be as training-schools in sociology, and, like the old soldier in the song, fade away rather than die. The military force of the future will probably be a small, pro- fessional, iron-clad army.
But if we or any other nation develop such an army, we shall have to revise in the most radical manner our conception of strategy and tactics. Machines will not make warlike men. " Did Goliath not suffer from the fire-power of David ? "
our author asks in one of his amusing asides. Tanks and aero- planes will not seek out an enemy position and laboriously
assault it. They will use their mobility : we must unshackle ourselves from the tactics and strategy of the past. We have at the moment a precious weapon—a new brand Excalibur fresh from the Lake. Handled bludgeon-wise it will lose its edge ; in the hands of a master it will prevail."
There is no master of the art of war to-day such as Alexander, Jenghiz, or Napoleon, and we thank God for it. Should such a leader and suitable circumstances arise, he would use his new engines by land and air as Napoleon disposed his forces on interior lines, as Jenghiz baffled Christendom with his cavalry, as Alexander handled his chariots at Arbela. What would not the great commanders of the past have given for twenty-ton tanks instead of the elephants of Hannibal, wireless for the wonderful horse-post of the Moghuls, a Rolls-Royce for Tamerlane instead of twenty fast camels on his frantic ride to Baghdad, and Fahey Foxes to carry the Eagles of Napo- leon at two hundred and fifty miles an hour ! Such fancies are not altogether frivolous. Our brains are no better than those of our ancestors of even two thousand years ago ; and hardly more than a century has passed since a genius appeared who revolutionized the art of war and conquered three quarters of Europe. The time for such material conquests appears to have passed. The world seems determined to establish an enduring peace. We stand on the borders of a passing age. But until we are sure that the emergence of such a master is impossible, it is well for us to understand that no possible or conceivable war between civilized nations will at all resemble the last and that it will require very different men and methods.
The soldier of the future will be a highly educated technician, able to earn wages in civil life probably in excess of those of a clerk:- In his hands will be engines of such power and terror (and his own outlook on the world will be so well-informed) that he will probably be an enthusiast for peace, as the majority of our leading soldiers already are. No one will want to fight, " but by Jingo if they do " they will be able to exter- minate each other so completely that there will be no more soldiers. So that it is possible that machinery and science may have already, to all intents and purposes, achieved the objects for which the Disarmament Commissions at Geneva have so long and so patiently striven.
We have not space to do more than commend, with some reservation, the miscellany of reminiscences Mr. Wilson has collected under the title of Fighting Tanks. Colonels Fuller and Hotblack are well known writers as well as distinguished soldiers : their stories and the stories of others who helped to form this citizen force are full of interest and humour. But the book is disappointing as a whole, for it is a " scrappy '' compilation.
Previous page
